The painting shows a panorama of an army of skeletons wreaking havoc across a blackened, desolate landscape. Fires burn in the distance, and the sea is littered with shipwrecks.[3]
A few leafless trees stud hills otherwise bare of vegetation. Fish lie rotting on the shores of a corpse-choked pond. Art historian James Snyder emphasizes the "scorched, barren earth, devoid of any life as far as the eye can see."[1]
In this setting, legions of skeletons advance on the living, who either flee in terror or try in vain to fight back. In the foreground, skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls. In the upper left corner, others ring the bell that signifies the death knell of the world. People are herded into a coffin-shaped trap decorated with crosses, while skeletons, some on horseback, kill people with scythes. The horse-riding skeletons probably allude to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The painting depicts people of different social backgrounds – from peasants and soldiers to nobles as well as a king and a cardinal – being taken by death indiscriminately.[4]
A skeleton parodies human happiness by playing a hurdy-gurdy, while the wheels of his cart crush a man as if his life is of no importance. A woman has fallen in the path of the death cart. She has a slender thread which is about to be cut by the scissors in her other hand—Bruegel's interpretation of Atropos. Nearby, another woman in the path of the cart holds in her hand a spindle and distaff, classical symbols of the fragility of human life—another Bruegel interpretation of Clotho and Lachesis.
A starving dog nibbles at the face of a dead child lying still within its dead mother's embrace. Just beside her, a cardinal is helped towards his fate by a skeleton who mockingly wears the red hat, while a dying king's barrels of gold and silver coins are looted by yet another skeleton, oblivious to the fact that a skeleton is warning him with an empty hourglass that his life is about to literally run out of time. The foolish and miserly monarch's last thoughts still compel him to reach out for his useless and vain wealth, seeming unaware of the need for repentance. In the centre, an awakening religious pilgrim has his throat cut by a robber-skeleton for his money purse. Above the murder, skeleton-fishermen catch people in a net.
In the bottom right-hand corner, a dinner has been broken up and the diners are putting up a futile resistance. They have drawn their swords in order to fight the skeletons dressed in winding-sheets. No less hopelessly, the court jester takes refuge beneath the dinner table. The backgammon board and the playing cards have been scattered, while a skeleton thinly disguised with a mask (possibly the face of a corpse) empties away the wine flasks. Of the menu of the interrupted meal, all that can be seen are a few pallid rolls of bread and an appetiser apparently consisting of a pared human skull. Above the table are two women. The one on the left struggles in vain while being embraced by a skeleton, in a hideous parody of after-dinner amorousness. The woman on the right is horrified with the realisation of mortality when a skeleton in a hooded robe mockingly seems to bring another dish, also consisting of human bones, to the table.[5]
In the bottom right-hand corner, a musician plays a lute while his lady sings. Both are oblivious to the fact that, behind both of them, the skeleton that plays along is grimly aware that the couple can not escape their inevitable doom. A cross sits in the centre of the painting. The painting shows aspects of everyday life in the mid-sixteenth century, when the risk of plague was very severe. Clothes are clearly depicted, as are pastimes such as playing cards and backgammon. It shows objects such as musical instruments, an early mechanical clock, scenes including a funeral service, and various methods of execution, including the breaking wheel, the gallows, burning at the stake, and the headsman about to behead a victim who has just taken wine and communion. In one scene, a human is the prey of a skeleton-hunter and his dogs.
In another scene at the left, skeletons drag victims down to be drowned in a pond. A man with a grinding stone around his neck is about to be thrown into the pond by the skeletons—an echoing of Matthew 18.6 and Luke 17.2. On the bridge just above at the right, a skeleton is about to strike a prostrate victim with a falchion.
Bruegel combines two distinct visual traditions within the panel. These represent both the native tradition of Northern woodcuts of the Dance of Death, and the Italian conception of the Triumph of Death. Classic examples of his frescoes can now be seen in the Palazzo Sclafani in Palermo and in the Camposanto Monumentale at Pisa.[6]
Popular culture
The Triumph of Death appears as a background image for the text intro of the second part of the Monty Python sketch The Spanish Inquisition.
Sylvia Plath describes the painting, particularly the lovers in the lower right-hand corner, in her poem “Two Views of a Cadaver Room.”
Heavy metal band Black Sabbath released a compilation album titles Black Sabbath Greatest Hits in 1977 which used the painting as the front and back covers.[7]
The painting was used on the cover of first edition printings of Cities of the Red Night, a 1981 novel by William S. Burroughs.
In Underworld, a 1996 novel by Don DeLillo, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover becomes utterly intrigued by the painting after seeing it reproduced in torn pages of Life magazine and eventually obtains a print of it.
The painting plays a pivotal role in The Rich Man's House, 2019, the final novel by Australian writer Andrew McGahan, with its theme of inevitable mortality. The rich man of the title (called Richman) has acquired the painting from the Museo del Prado and it hangs in pride of place in his mountaintop house.[8]
The painting appears in Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice, as a mural in the entrance to the vampire Armand’s realm which lies below his Paris theatre.
A grayscale depiction of The Triumph Of Death appears as a motion background in the opening credits of The Pit and the Pendulum (1991).
The painting is used as the cover art to late Chicago rapper Juice WRLD's EP NOTHING'S DIFFERENT, released on SoundCloud in 2017.
The Chariot of Death, painting by Théophile Schuler
Notes
^ abSnyder, James (1985). Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, the Graphic Arts from 1350 to 1575. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 486. ISBN 0-8109-1081-0.
^Pallucchini, Anna; Ragghianti, Carlo Ludovico; Collobi, Licia Ragghianti (1968). Prado, Madrid. Great Museums of the World. New York: Newsweek. p. 134.
^According to the Italian Wikipedia the background of a tower "Particular of the triumph of the death of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (the Prado, Madrid), in which the profile of (Fortification of Reggio Calabria) and the Tower of Pentimele is recognized in the background, the Flemish painter was in Reggio in the sixteenth century and in this work refers to his notes of voyage in which It describes the attack of the Pirates of Dragut on the beach of the quarter of arches."
^Woodward, Richard B. (February 14, 2009). "Death Takes No Holiday". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
^G. Gluck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, London (1958), s.v. "Triumph of Death". See also Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, Bruegel: The Complete Paintings. aka Pieter Bruegel the Elder: peasants, fools and demons, Taschen (2004).
^P. Thon, "Bruegel's Triumph of Death Reconsidered", Renaissance Quarterly Vol. 21, No. 3, Autumn, 1968.
El Greco: The Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest – Adoration of the Shepherds – Doña María de Aragón Altarpiece – Annunciation – Christ Carrying the Cross – The Fable – The Flight into Egypt – Holy Face of Jesus – Holy Trinity – Julián Romero and Saint Julian – Portrait of a Doctor – Portrait of a Gentleman – Portrait of a Young Nobleman – Portrait of an Elderly Man – Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman – Portrait of Jerónimo de Cevallos – Portrait of Rodrigo Vázquez de Arce – Saint Andrew and Saint Francis – Saint Anthony of Padua – Saint Bernardino of Siena[1] – Saint James the Great – Saint John the Evangelist – Saint Paul – Saint Sebastian – Saint Thomas the Apostle – Holy Trinity – The Saviour – Virgin Mary
Luna: The Death of Cleopatra
Maíno: Adoration of the Magi – Portrait of a Gentleman – The Recovery of Bahía de Todos los Santos
Murillo: Adoration of the Shepherds(1650) – Aranjuez Immaculate Conception – The Christ Child and the Infant John the Baptist with a Shell – Christ on the Cross(1675, 1677) – The Conversion of Saint Paul – The Good Shepherd – The Holy Family with a Little Bird – The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial – The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables – The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew – Our Lady of the Rosary – The Patrician's Dream – Rebecca and Eleazar
Pradilla: Doña Joanna the Mad
Ribera: Jacob's Dream – Democritus – Isaac and Jacob – Ixion – Tityos – The Martyrdom of Saint Philip – The Blind Sculptor
Sánchez Gallque: The Mulattos of Esmeraldas[2]
Velázquez: Las Meninas – The Triumph of Bacchus – Las Hilanderas – The Surrender of Breda – Mars Resting – Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV – Equestrian Portrait of Elisabeth of France – Equestrian Portrait of Prince Balthasar Charles – Equestrian Portrait of Philip III – Equestrian Portrait of Margarita of Austria – Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares – Adoration of the Magi – Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan – Christ Crucified – Coronation of the Virgin – View of the Garden of the Villa Medici – Prince Balthasar Charles as a Hunter – Portrait of the Infante Don Carlos – Doña Antonia de Ipeñarrieta y Galdós and Her Son Don Luis – The Jester Barbarroja – The Jester Calabacillas – The Jester Don Diego de Acedo – The Jester Don John of Austria – Portrait of Francisco Lezcano – Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Pink Dress – Portrait of Maria Anna – Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés – The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente – Portrait of Pablo de Valladolid – Portrait of Philip IV in Armour – Portrait of Mariana of Austria – Portrait of Sebastián de Morra
Zurbarán: Agnus Dei – The Death of Hercules – The Defence of Cádiz Against the English – Hercules and the Hydra – Hercules Separates Mounts Calpe and Abylla – Hercules Fighting the Nemean Lion – Saint Elizabeth of Portugal – Saint Luke Painting the Crucifixion – Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle – Still Life with Pots – The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco
Bouts: Triptych with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
Bruegel the Elder: The Triumph of Death – The Wine of Saint Martin's Day – Excursion in the Countryside of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia – Life in the Countryside – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park(with de Momper) – Landscape(with de Momper) – The Five Senses(with Rubens)
van Dyck: Self-portrait with Sir Endymion Porter – The Betrayal of Christ – The Brazen Serpent – Diana and a Nymph Surprised by a Satyr – Saint Rosalia – The Crowning with Thorns
van Hemessen: The Surgeon
Francken the Younger: The Sciences and the Arts
Jordaens: Apollo as Victor over Pan – Meleager and Atalanta – The Painter's Family
Memling: Adoration of the Magi
Mengs: Portrait of José Nicolás de Azara
de Momper: Landscape with Sea and Mountains – A Farm – Flemish Market and Washing Place – Landscape with Skaters – The Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in the Mariemont Park(with Brueghel the Elder) – Landscape(with Brueghel the Elder)
Rubens: The Judgement of Paris(1638) – The Three Graces – Adoration of the Magi – The Dance of the Villagers – Diana and Callisto – Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma – The Fall of Man – The Garden of Love – The Birth of the Milky Way – The Rape of Europa – The Rape of Ganymede – Saint George and the Dragon – Saturn – The Triumph of the Church – Deucalion and Pyrrha – The Five Senses(with Brueghel the Elder)
Lorrain: Landscape with St Paula of Rome Embarking at Ostia – The Ford – Landscape with St María de Cervelló – Landscape with the Burial of St Serapia – Landscape with the Finding of Moses – Landscape with the Temptation of St Anthony – Landscape with Tobias and Raphael
Poussin: Parnassus – Landscape with Three Figures – Saint Cecilia
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